RAPACOUS RAPHAEL.

NZ Truth, Issue 158, 27 June 1908, Page 5

RAPACOUS RAPHAEL.

DUFFEY

HE REMORSELESS,

In the Grip or the Money-lender.

How Alf. Penney was Driven to

Suicide.

Christohurch Usurers Sadly Fail In, ! -' \

When poor Alt Penney, traveller lor Duff and Co., soit goods people of Christchurch, dropped foto Religious Ashburton, to commit suicicfe by; taking poison, he wrote a pathetic letter; ' to his wife, which was published m "Truth" at the time, Penney's burden it financial embarrassment was too greit to beat, and wnen his wife (who har, no Knowledge of her husband's affairs) .wrote to him frantically that the bailiffs were m the ; house, it. was the lasit stow, and Penney ojuietly passed over to thepajority. "1 won't outlive disgrace," wrote the unhappy woman m the first horror of her discovery of things as they .wee, and piteously denounced herself laftirwards because she hadn't had the \ chance to unsay those words, and saverthtlife of. the harrassed husband. He certatoly didn't outlive the disgrace. Alfred Pepey was IN THE HANDS OF THE MONJBY- . LEXERS. . It is probable that so long as the world is a world we will lave these gentry who Squeeze the life-blood out. of their victims, the money-lender being a natural, if cancerous growth on thy ' body of our modern civilisation ; but the curses of the suicide a»d of his widow afai children rise Up to the heavens, and if 'here is anything m mental telepathy or She mysticism that we hear so much ab<Ut. no luck can come of the wealth wrunpjfrom <^ toiler by the social vampire s^o collects his 20, • 50 and 200 per scfimt. This paper doesn't know the interest charged by Penney's legal despoilers ■ nor does it know what amounts that vjitirn borrowed, as these things were ke# from hisvwife, but it does know that the^arasitical persons, assembled atound the dead body of the commercial : traveller liie vultures round a cadaver m the desert, md fought for his few belongings. Fortunately they were bilked, of their • prey by- a simple legal oversight, which will be Mentioned presently, and retired gnashingV L their fangs> m angry impotence. By wa| of biographical sketch, it might be me&oned that Penney was for twenty-four'years m the employ of , the D.I. C, principally m Wellington, where he had chatje of a hardware department prior .to his employment as one of the firm's travelers. He. migrated to Christchurch four yea? ago and was travelling for the D.T.O. Jtt three years subsequently, joining Dufnlid Co ! . about twelve months,, ago. He w I a man who earned about £5, a week, l It that sum was of little help to a pel ft who, had been grafting his soul cat hit for some years to satisfy the derod Is of the merciless persons who adverfrn Ismail accommodations on personal orl roer security. That he should have man Id to keep his .financial troubles fronl fcis wife is something astonishing and %>eaks volumes for the mental agony] \?ered by the man alone and unsupported! Athe sympa-"-thy of his helpmeet. Then Hre three children, from "whom the kj , ndge was also kept. One of these, al] fe<s a smart youth attending the High « ©1, he Itav-. ing won^ a free place there r a scholarship m the primary school,! Je , girl is delicate, 'and suffers from ejchiilis. and THE TJNHAPPY , MOTHeISIIIEFT i v PENNILESS.*-- ■ to provide for the family, Ijis paper has" investigated, matters, arid. fi^» that no fewer 1 thjfri six m'oney-lehder^ were; exacting their] pound qf flesh iluris the, later years of jFenney's life, but, lie it /said, two onlyj fought 6ver th&b<Sfr of their victim loi possession of the Iff od-ds arid ends left In the house. Thesevere Raphael and Dtifiey. Raphael's grfupoA the unhappy^ traveller' had been fH& and.-unc-ompromising for a period of -our years, thd security being a bil.-of-sai over the furniture, lut the original, debV had been wiped out land re-borrowed the and again, and Benney seems to hay been paying m to Ids pgwnbroking owiir ever ,and always. Braffey came on 'the gene isiter with a bilMof-sale over the family piano and organ, and he it was who Pu* the bailiff' into the Penney establisnient, an action that paused the frantic jtter written by the fife to her husband md drove the brooding bagman to suicide and oblivion, fenncy, for some fcqsiderabla time back, jad betfn a sufferer jom neurasthenia .induced by the sleepier worry over his affairs, and the dosej| oxalic acid, althoMgh inflicting tempoify P D 7" sica, torturejbrought a 'happy iilease, m more ways iian one. The d[istMgh.t woman -was apiulled by the ap'p'^tnce of the baliliff, aid offered to do Anything to avoid the! disgrace of being old up.Moreover, she! el aimed the furnitufc aa.hejj own, and wai horrified by the ftiustoice of the whole «ing. The only mon?. fa th© house was £118s, which she hanM over to Duffey's afent, who isn't- the person to be bfamedn'of course, he havig as much responsibility jrin! - the condtt ol these little afftirs as the furnitur van that carts the (things away. In coSideration of this payment proceedings were . stayed for a wttle, so that when 'enney started on his {journey towards tb great Hereafter the \joman hadn't a coper m her possession. (News of the suicid was flashed quickly .lp Christchurch, ail Duffey's man notified that he would c)l m the afternoon td take possession f the musical instrumints, even though the; dead bod:y might be m the house. Kphael ' also n9tified m fgitation that he rwiid distrain on the 1 fleets an Hour aftt the corpse had been isposed of, but th> INDECENT HASTE TO HA-NDLBI'HhJ JPOIL ' r " was circumventedrby the providentii! intervention of leal aid. ' Penney's two brothers arrived Jom \Vellington an(|o nsulted a solicitor J and one of .three ; money-lenders whd didn't date, or refined through policy taaotlves from enfo'-ftne,; their claims over |he collin, assistedpc; lawyer to outwit lßaphael and Duey.jRaphael refused to show his hill-oMle, and" Duffey's docunint \\ras likewise-i|is-ible, but the sdlicitij; discovered that" fci-; ther bill-of-sale had been, registered, fso that he stepped m 4nd Saved; the fufiiture and effects tq the bereaved and mother. TVlore*er, as Dufley's aft obtained £1 18s froh the woman r jufin an unregistered bill-d-sale it is 5 the : irMtion of the solicitoiW) sue for the re'trin of that amount m «c local Court. Pg-' eeedrngs are also tl|eatened against *• other money-lewder, he Isaac Allen, y» obtained moneys claljned by Mrs Perirff m an extraordinary Fanner ■ v The lad i father died intestate U little while bai [ and left a small sum M money which w administered by the Bublic Trustee. JVI Penney duly sent m fer claim, and t sum of £32 was apportioned, but by t arrangement between Ptmey (whom it claimed had no rightffco dispose of fi wife's coin) and the Ppiic Trustree th amount was paid to Ifiac Allen m sati: faction of his demands for moneys ac vanced. This fact w« discovered' quit recently lyi Mrs Pcnnel who requires th return of the cash, an| her solicitor wil probably sue the Publia Trustee or Allen or both jointly. It is^. remarkable com mentary upon our Boasted civihsatioi that distracted victimsjlsnoufd ' BE DRIVEN TO TAKfe THEIR I^IVJbJS by the blood-sucking demands of bowclless usurers: "I have ney^r SC en Raphael," said the unfortunate \vid« w to a "Truth" representative. She was-fearlcss and had a strained expression ii> the eves 'that would arouse the pifi|| at the hardest, 'hearted. She. had been priig-glinj, to k^ up lot the sake of hcrfoJiudrcn. M 0&